Law students, college staff ensure state assistance for child rape victim

Ensuring compensation for such victims is a job that is normally initiated by the police and women and child welfare department (WCD). However, in this case, a simple overlooking of duties meant that the girl child wasn’t even considered for the scheme until staff and students at SLS’s legal aid centre took up the matter.

The girl’s father told The Indian Express that in April 2015, someone told him about free legal care available at the SLS. “I decided to approach them as I wanted a good lawyer but couldn’t afford it. When I went there for legal advice, one of the members told me about this Manodhairya scheme and asked me to find out if my daughter’s case had been recommended for it. Until then, I didn’t know that such a scheme existed,” said the father.

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Ananya Pandit, a fourth-year BA LLB student who is the chief executive of SLS legal care centre, says, “I was researching for the case under the guidance of a faculty when we realised that the girl could get assistance under this scheme. The man comes from a modest background and he was glad to know of it as any assistance could be used for her education. We advised the father to go to police station and collect some documents on his own. When he couldn’t do it, we went along with him to the police station. The police officer later himself submitted the relevant papers to WCD,” she said.

The SLS team, which by then had some interactions with the girl, also realised that she needed extensive counselling.

Akhil Ennamsetty, a 19-year-old BA LLB student, suggested that she take counselling and treatment at Armed Forces Medical College. “She is now undergoing the treatment there now,” says the girl’s father.

As per norms of Manodhairya scheme, within an hour of a case of sexual abuse being registered, the police are supposed to inform the women and child welfare department and later submit a copy of FIR. The WCD then recommends the victim for compensation. In this case, it hadn’t happened as the police didn’t inform the WCD, said officials. “The case came to us very late, almost a year-and-a-half after the incident. But within couple of months of the papers being submitted to us, the sanction has come,” said Minakshi Birajdar, district women and child welfare officer.

Confirming the role of SLS team, senior police inspector B N Kale said that a faculty member who was known to him approached him with parents and students. “Actually, the police have no problem in co-operating. We also want victims to get aid wherever possible. At the time this case happened, scheme was new and not much details were known. We moved quickly after being approached. I feel the WCD still needs to conduct training and spread awareness about the formalities for this scheme and role of officers and also take suo motu notice,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shashikala Gurpur, the director of SLS, said their legal care centre would soon take up more socially relevant projects. “We have a corpus fund which we are thinking of using in projects for welfare of prisoners’ children, and in working with child helpline and providing free legal aid in cases of abuse. But beyond just providing legal aid, we want our students to imbibe values of compassion in them which will help make them better lawyers,” Gurpur said.